When we find the boats, those packed, leaking boats, it’s a sea of worn-out faces. We don’t know about the ones that don’t make it but we see the children, babies and young girls, alone and terrified
Rescuers’ lifeline in Med for desperate families
They have fled war-ravaged and poverty-stricken homelands and endured a perilous trek overland to reach the Libyan coast.
Crammed into small, fragile wooden boats designed to hold a fraction of their number, men, women and children are cast off from the beach to an uncertain fate.
The lucky ones are those whose boats are found by retired mid wife Jonquil Nichol land her colleagues on board aid ships run by the humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres.
They are plucked to safety by the ships pat rolling these as off Libya and given help. Thousands of others lose their lives.
Jonquil, 59, a mother of five, has no idea how many others are lost at sea.
But she admits she has been shocked by the refugees she has ended up helping – both by their youth and by the dangers of rape, theft and assault they are prepared to face in search of a new life.
She said: “We don’t know about the boats that are turned back or the ones that get out of coastal waters.
“But we know that many of the young people on board are very young girls travelling on their own.We have many that come forward and say they have been raped and assaulted in Libya.
“We hear of some women who are told to take injectable contraceptives because assaults are likely as they travel through Libya.
“Often they are sleeping during the day in places like the bushes just to avoid the police.
“We have women who are travelling with young babies. We have three babies under six months on board the ship right now. If they ended up in the sea they have no hope.
“We have one baby who was wrapped up in a blue frilly dress. We couldn’t get over it.”
Growing numbers of refugees are braving the potential ly deadly journey from Libya, where the anarchy that followed the downfall of the Gaddafi regime means people smugglers operate freely.
And the number known to have died this year is already approaching the total number last year. In the last week, 155 of the people plucked from the small boats were boys and girls aged less than 18.
And a total of more than 12,000 people have been saved from the water by Medecins Sans Frontieres – who are working alongside the Irish navy and Save the Children in the area – since April.
During that time, Aberdeen- born Jonquil has also delivered her first baby on board the 80ft ship. And she has heard
Many of the girls and women say they were raped in Libya
horrifying tales of the nightmare journey the refugees are undertaking.
Under the cover of darkness, they are herded into tiny boats designed to hold no more than 30 or 40 people.
But more than 120 are packed in, conditions which make a sinking or capsize much more likely.
“The women and chi ldren are crammed in,” said Jonquil, who started volunteering for MSF af ter she retired as a community midwife.
“The first thing the rescuers see is a sea of faces. The refugees can hardly move and are just packed together in the boats.
“The boats are usually full of water and there is often fuel in the water too as the engines are so old.
“We send out boats to offer lifejackets and to keep refugees calm ahead of the rescues. The boats could capsize if there is movement because they are so unstable.
“When we get to the boats we take women and children off first and that’s when my work begins. We offer them a shower and change them and wrap them up. They are exhausted. They are often stressed and shocked.”
In almost every rescue, those on board the boats have run out of water and food.
Last week, Jonquil helped Faith Otas, who had been plucked from an overcrowded boat, deliver her son, Newton.
She said: “From what Faith told us, she was probably in labour on the boat.
“She didn’t know what she would have done if she had been forced to give birth on that boat. And if she had gone into labour 24 hours earlier she would have been stuck on a beach in Libya.”
According to the International Organisation for Migration, 264,513 people have arrived in Europe by sea this year, landing mainly in Greece and Italy.
Of those who attempted the crossing, 3165 people died at sea. Last year’s total was 3771.
The figures are a warning sign, according to Dumfries- based A& E nurse Michael Shek, who went on board the MSF vessel Aquarius to help at the beginning of September.
He said: “At least three times the safe number cram into the boats in the belief they are just a couple of hours from Italy and safety. That is not the case.”
Michael, 27, added: “A lot of the public think it’s just men coming over who want jobs, or parents who don’t care about their children.
“The places these people are from are war zones. When I was 18, I worried about going to university. I wasn’t worried about keeping safe or finding the next meal.”
Michael admits there is satisfaction in helping and sometimes reuniting families who have feared the worst.
He said: “One man had fallen off a boat and got separated from his family. But he made it on to another boat and was so anxious to know where his wife and children were.
“We managed to make contact with another vessel and confirmed they were on board. They were transferred to our boat and we were able to reunite that dad with his kids and his wife. It was such a huge relief. We were so happy.”